ABSTRACT
Japan’s defeat in the Pacific War ushered in a period of very rapid social change in that country. As in the United States in the 1930s, political change preceded and produced socio-economic and legal changes. Until 1952, Japan was occupied by the Allies under the very assertive leadership of the United States and the Supreme Commander, General MacArthur. However, in a manner that turned out to prefigure accurately the eventual significance of the reforms that accompanied the Occupation, Japan was deprived of her sovereignty for the Occupation’s duration and yet continued to rule herself. The Occupation authorities or SCAP (Supreme Commander Allied Powers) initiated or approved all the major pieces of legislation, including the ‘New Constitution’ (Quigley and Turner, 1956; Ward, 1957), the reform of the legal Codes and the legal system more generally, the legalisation of trade unions (Gould, 1984, ch.1), the dismemberment of the huge pre-war corporations or zaibatsu, and a very radical programme of land reform. However, and despite the fact that this legislative package represented a bold attempt at social engineering or nation building, as it would be called today, all items in the package were debated and passed by the Diet, promulgated by the Emperor, implemented by the state bureaucracy, administered by the courts and enforced by the Japanese authorities. Moreover, until 1947, all of these institutions continued to operate more or less as they had done under the pre-war regime and mainly with the same personnel.
